Joe made a cool video riding down the switchbacks at the end of the ride. Here it is!

And finally, here’s the trail:

View Larger Map

Here is an interactive map of the Deer Creek loop, and the elevation profile:

View Larger Map

We’re back after our whirlwind of travel from Crested Butte to Charlotte to DC to Charlottesville to Raleigh. Whew. Lots of flying, driving, and not much sleep… after a week at altitude. It was an awesome trip out to Colorado with lots of great training and time well spent with close friends.

I’ll write about each day in Colorado, along with a race report from the Charlottesville Xterra that I raced in today (I finished 2nd!).

For now it’s an evening laid out on the couch, watching the olympics, and resting up for my next training block before the Shenandoah 100.

I can’t even begin to put words together to describe our drive over here. It was epic, to say the least. And, the road we took… the only other vehicles on it were ATV’s. Yeeaaahhhh…. it was crazy! We came through Hancock Pass which reached over 12,000ft and is the continental divide. Even the locals that we’ve talked to don’t know what or where Hancock Pass is. And… we don’t really either, until we get the GPS loaded on the computer.

I’ll post a video from our drive, once Joe gets it edited and all.

We made it to Crested Butte after 8:00pm. Of course my parents and my friend were worried, but we had no cell service to call anyone to tell them where we were.

Needless to say, we’re safe and sound now in one of the prettiest places I’ve been, and we have already been out on a great introductory ride to the area. Thankfully my friends have been here for several years and know all the good trails to go on… we don’t even have to think or look at a map, we just get to follow along and enjoy it! Pretty sweet deal if you ask me.

Here’s a link to pictures from our ride today…

Tomorrow we’ll do a longer ride, and if I have time I’ll post pictures and a report afterwards.

I started the packing process yesterday because I’m in for a fast paced week and couple of days. And, inevitably I am sure I will forget something, even though I have been careful to try to think of EVERYTHING.

We are leaving this evening from Raleigh to drive to my parents’ house to drop off our dogs to stay with them during our travels. That’s three hours in the car.

Then we drive to Charlotte, where we are flying out of tomorrow morning. Another hour in the car.

Then we fly to Denver early tomorrow morning and arrive around 9:30am mountain time.

Then we drive our rental car 4 to 6 hours to Crested Butte.

And THEN I get to ride my mountain bike… once it’s put together out of the case. YAY!

We come back to NC on the following Friday… drive up to DC for a wedding on Saturday that same night… and then drive to Charlottesville, VA after the wedding Saturday night for my next Xterra race on Sunday.

Are you confused yet?? Okay good.

Then we drive back to my parents’ house to pick up our dogs, back to Charlotte, and THEN back to Raleigh. Agh. Yeah… and I hopefully will make it back in to work on the 18th with some sort of brain power.

hahahahaha… Here’s to some of the craziest travel I have EVER done. And that’s sayin something.

I’ve done this ride almost every year since I first started pedaling a bike. It was the first century that I completed, and it’s one that keeps me coming back year after year.

The scenery of course is absolutely beautiful, the climbs are punishing, the downhills are fun, and the event organizers are top-notch. The food and music greeting you after the ride make the day even more festive.

I remember the first time that I did the Brutal, and it sure was different than it is now. I’ve seen it develop first-hand into a very well run event. The first year I did it there was no music at the end, but there was great food (the most important part!)… and the course is different now… the added climb up 194 at the end of the ride sure makes for a more challenging route than the straight shot down flat Todd Railroad Grade Rd.

This year, I am sad to say that I won’t be able to make the Brutal… I’ll be attending a wedding in the DC area. But you can bet I’ll be back next year… and good luck to all of you who decide to tackle the 2008 Brutal!

I’m excited to be helping with the Athens Drive Cross Country team this year, so I’m officially a running coach now. We started manditory practice this week in the evenings, and that means only one thing… school is just around the corner now.

It’s a fun time of year, for me at least… I don’t know about the kids. I’m looking forward to being back in school. My room has really come together well and, with a few more finishing touches, it will be ready to go by the first day of school.

Yesterday I rode my mountain bike over to practice and biked with a group of kids (I’m still keeping running to a minimal) during their run. It was a blast! I love where we get to run at… we’re so lucky to be located right near Lake Johnson and have easy access to the trail system there.

We did some core after the run, and then I biked back home.

I leave for Crested Butte, CO this Saturday… I can’t believe it’s almost time! I’m going to mountain bike my life away! I have a lot of stuff to get ready before the trip… it’s going to be a jet-set paced couple of weeks… and then school will start, routines will fall into place, and life will settle down….

HA! Yeah RIGHT! Not my life! “Live in the fast lane,” that’s what I always say…

Xterra Panther Creek started with an 800m swim or so in the beautiful lake. I had an okay start… was gapped off from the faster swimmers, but I just made up ground as I went. I ended up coming out of the water 4th overall… um, how does that happen?? Oh well, I’ll take it! Off to the bike transition I went…

There was a long run uphill to the transition area on rocky gravel. Ouch… oh well, I wasn’t going to take the time to put on shoes. I got to my bike and headed out on the trail. This bike was pretty challenging for my riding style. There wasn’t nearly enough sustained climbing in the course, and all the climbs seemed to be followed by a downhill… and each downhill twisted around tight turns and then into another uphill. I was wishing I could downhill like my friend, Deb Elliott. She flies!! Since I’m such a newbie on the mountain bike, these downhill and twisty elements are not my forte. But I was really happy to force myself to race on a twisty, flowy course like this… it makes me a better rider. The more momentum you carried through all the downhills and turns, the better… and I just power through that stuff right now because I am so cautious on all the downhills. There was a really cool rocky section with some bridges and whopdidoos… and I rode through that fairly clean… only a couple dabs and I was through. I was happy about that!

Off the bike and onto the run… I was thankful that the run was not technical at all. By the time I had twisted and turned my way through the bike, I was looking forward to an easier time on the run. And boy, what a treat to just have a double track run… only the first mile was single track (it followed the same course as the bike). So I just kept a steady pace and kept it going until the finish. I still haven’t been running much so I don’t have racing legs on the run, but I did feel like my form was much, much better this race… thank you Dr. Swank!

The finish was right at the foot of the lake… perfect. I was dying to get back in the water. As a matter of fact, when I passed Joe on the way to the finish I said, “I’m getting in the water…” as a hint to where I would be when I finished this thing!

I met the Xterra rep after I crossed the line. He was really nice, and very funny giving out prizes. They had gatorade drinking contests, pushup contests, and all kinds of crazy antics to see who got race swag… much more entertaining than the usual “drawing of the race numbers,” eh??

I actually got a free entry to Xterra Nationals in Tahoe later this year… gotta see if I can swing the airfare, but I am hoping, hoping, hoping to get to go and race!

After the race while we were waiting in the shade for the awards, I asked Joe what he thought of my race. His response, “Well, you could’a beat more men.”

Priceless.

See the standards I have to live up to??

Thanks to all my sponsors for believing in me and keeping me going! I couldn’t do it without all of you.

And MANY thanks to the Race Director, RaceDayEvents, and the Panther Creek Park Rangers for putting on such a wonderful race!

See more pictures from the weekend here!

Check out my schedule & results page… Joe embedded a google map of all my races so you can see where they are at on a map. Cool, huh? Well, at least I thought so. There will be more races added… just so you know. He’s only got my August races up so far.

I’m really excited about the race this Sunday… well, the whole weekend all together! I look forward to seeing my parents and spending time with Joe and the dogs at the campground. The race is just going to be icing on the cake.

Sheldon has done well on his short runs this week. He ran 4 days in a row. Pretty good for a little puppy!

Have a fun weekend… wherever you are!!!

He ran again with me this morning and is definitely a happier dog. He’s not completely zonked the rest of the day after our runs either… so he’s recovering nicely (just like his mom! hehe!).

Symba is also happy to be able to get his rest throughout the day because Sheldon isn’t quite as hyper. When I go to Umstead to run, I will take both of them out. But for now, I can only handle one dog at a time when I’m around the neighborhood due to cars and other people out walking their dogs.

An awful thing happened on my ride this morning. I was passing by Lake Jordan, and I saw the Athens Drive cross country team at the trail crossing… the coach was in the road stopping traffic. As I got closer, I could see something was laying in the road.

My heart stopped. I knew instantly what I was coming up on… but I didn’t want to believe it all at the same time.

A girl was out jogging with her dog this morning on the trails at Lake Johnson when her dog took off unexpectedly. He wasn’t on a leash, and had gotten so far ahead of her that when he crossed the road, a car came through and hit him.

The dog was laying in the road as the cross country coach was standing over him, keeping other cars from hitting him again.

I rolled up just as the girl was coming to the trail crossing… seeing her dog in the middle of the road. I watched in horror as I saw her run over to him and pick him up, craddling him in her arms, willing him not to die.

I offered my phone to let her call someone… but who do you call? She immediately drove him off to the vet. I felt so helpless, and all I could think about, selfishly, was “god, what would I do if that happened to one of my dogs?” All I can say is, I’d be beside myself.

Often I take my dogs walking over at Lake Johnson, so this really hit close to home. I will think twice before letting them wander free close to the road crossings… better yet, I am going to avoid them all together!

I sure hope that the girl and her dog is okay. I’m sending them well wishes… and so is Symba and Sheldon!